Within Maryland Monsters
How Do Small Rumours Become Maryland Monsters?
Maryland's smaller monster stories show how odd animal reports, pranks and local rumours can quickly join a state's cryptid map.
On this page
- Dwayyo and western Maryland creature reports
- Sykesville Monster rumours and local memory
- Strange animals, pranks and fast folklore
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Introduction
Maryland’s minor monsters are useful because they show folklore forming at street level. The Dwayyo, usually remembered as a wolf-like thing in Frederick County, and the Sykesville Monster, a Bigfoot-like figure tied to Carroll County and the Patapsco River valley, do not have the source base of the Snallygaster, Goatman or Chessie. That is the point. Their stories grew from local reports, newspaper attention, frightened or amused residents, possible pranks, rough terrain and later retellings that turned brief “what was that?” moments into named Maryland creatures. The best reading is not that either animal has been proven to exist, but that both legends reveal the speed at which a strange animal claim can enter a state’s monster map when it has a good name, a recognisable place and just enough uncertainty to survive. Maryland’s own Department of Natural Resources frames cryptids as creatures from stories and sightings that have not been proven, while also noting that many may be inspired by ordinary wildlife.[Maryland News]news.maryland.govs cryptids and the wildlife that may have inspired thems cryptids and the wildlife that may have inspired them
Why small rumours become Maryland monsters
A small monster rumour needs three things: a memorable creature, a local stage and a way to travel. The Dwayyo had all three. It was described as a dark, wolfish, bear-sized animal that could rise on two legs; it was placed near the wooded Catoctin landscape west of Frederick; and it entered public memory through 1960s newspaper coverage and later folklore books and websites. Gambrill State Park, often linked to the Dwayyo setting, is a real mountain park on the ridge of the Catoctin Mountains in Frederick County, with wooded trails and overlooks that make a natural backdrop for an alarming dusk encounter.[Bygone Maryland]bygonemaryland.comBygone Maryland The Dwayyo: 'Don't Mess with ItBygone Maryland The Dwayyo: 'Don't Mess with It
The Sykesville Monster had a different shape but a similar mechanism. It was not usually described as a wolf-man. It belonged to the American “hairy biped” tradition: tall, dark, shaggy, human-like in posture but animal-like in appearance. Its strongest public cluster sits around 1973 reports near Sykesville, followed by later retellings and a 1981 encounter account by Lon Strickler. The geography matters here too. Patapsco Valley State Park extends for 32 miles along the Patapsco River and covers more than 16,000 acres, giving Sykesville’s monster stories a plausible-feeling corridor of woods, riverbanks and semi-rural edges.[CBS News]cbsnews.comCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland MonsterCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland Monster
Neither case offers strong biological evidence. What they offer is a clear lesson in folklore mechanics. A rumour becomes durable when later tellers can answer basic questions quickly: what was it, where was it seen, who reacted, and why did people talk about it? The Dwayyo and Sykesville Monster survive because their stories are easy to place on a Maryland map.
Dwayyo and western Maryland creature reports
The Dwayyo is normally described as a bipedal, wolf-like creature from Frederick County: shaggy, dark-haired, dog- or wolf-faced, and unsettling because it behaves partly like a large animal and partly like a person. The most frequently repeated modern account centres on November 1965, when a man identified as John Becker reportedly told a Frederick County newspaper that he had fought off a six-foot, black-haired creature with a bushy tail in his backyard on Fern Rock Road. The creature was said to be as big as a bear and to growl like an angry wolf or dog.[Bygone Maryland]bygonemaryland.comBygone Maryland The Dwayyo: 'Don't Mess with ItBygone Maryland The Dwayyo: 'Don't Mess with It
The story’s setting is important. Frederick County already had the Snallygaster, a much older and better-known mountain monster tradition associated with western Maryland’s German-settler folklore and sensational early twentieth-century newspaper stories. Later writers often present the Dwayyo as the Snallygaster’s enemy, sometimes even folding it into the same mythic ecosystem. The Baltimore Banner’s 2024 account is careful about this: folklorist Susan Fair is quoted as saying that the Dwayyo’s supposed rivalry with the Snallygaster may have hardened from a loose comparison into “fact” through retelling.[The Banner]thebanner.comdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CMdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM
That matters because the Dwayyo is not an ancient, well-documented creature with a clean historical trail. Some online summaries push the story back to 1944 around West Middletown, but the most concrete public burst is the 1965 newspaper episode. The later 2026 Appalachian Historian reconstruction also treats 1965 as the key moment when the Dwayyo entered the public record as a named Frederick County monster, rather than as a long-established animal tradition.[Cryptid Wiki]cryptidz.fandom.comCryptid Wiki DewayoCryptid Wiki Dewayo
The 1965 episode also contains a prank-shaped clue. The Baltimore Banner reports that a $1 dog licence was issued for a dog named “Dwayyo”, made out to “John Becker”, with a question mark under the breed. After that, newspaper references to the Dwayyo and Becker apparently stopped. That little bureaucratic joke is more revealing than any dramatic footprint. It suggests that at least some people close to the original rumour were treating the beast as a comic local event, not a verified animal emergency.[The Banner]thebanner.comdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CMdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM
The best sceptical explanations are ordinary but not dismissive. A large dog, especially an Irish wolfhound or similar shaggy animal, could account for a brief “wolf-man” impression if seen in poor light, startled motion or an already nervous state. A black bear could explain some later “large dark animal” impressions in western Maryland, particularly because black bears are now primarily found in Garrett, Allegany, Washington and Frederick counties, and are capable of standing upright briefly. Maryland DNR also notes that bears can make warning sounds including blowing and tooth-clacking, behaviours that can sound uncanny if heard without context.[Maryland Department of Natural Resources]dnr.maryland.govOpen source on maryland.gov.
Coyotes are a more complicated fit. They are now common enough in Maryland to shape modern “dogman” interpretations, but DNR says coyotes were first documented in the state in 1972, with initial substantiated sightings in Cecil, Frederick and Washington counties. That makes coyotes unlikely as an explanation for the original 1965 Dwayyo burst, though they may help explain later canine-shaped rumours in the same broad region.[Maryland Department of Natural Resources]dnr.maryland.govOpen source on maryland.gov.
What makes the Dwayyo interesting, then, is not evidence of an unknown species. It is the way a short-lived report gained extra life by being attached to a strong local monster tradition. Frederick County already knew how to tell a mountain-beast story. The Dwayyo simply stepped into an empty space beside the Snallygaster.
Sykesville Monster rumours and local memory
The Sykesville Monster is usually remembered as Maryland’s smaller-scale Bigfoot story: a tall, hairy, dark figure reported around Sykesville, Carroll County, and the wooded Patapsco corridor. Its most cited public flap came in 1973, when the Baltimore Afro-American covered reports of a creature seen near Sykesville. Search-result text from the Maryland State Archives’ digitised Afro-American issue identifies a June 1973 article in which the paper said it had learned of the “Sykesville Monster” from a local woman; later transcriptions of the coverage describe police attention, witness interviews and a continuing “hunt”.[Maryland State Archives]msa.maryland.govmsa afromsa afro
The 1973 reports are unusually interesting because they were not only a private campfire tale. CBS Baltimore’s 2014 account, previewing a television episode about the case, says a rash of sightings in 1973 led to a creature hunt involving police, a game warden, zoo officials and paranormal investigators. It also reports that a plaster cast was taken of a 13-inch footprint, but that zoo officials said the print could have been made by a sandal. That is a near-perfect minor-cryptid evidence pattern: official-sounding activity, a physical trace, and an explanation that immediately weakens the trace.[CBS News]cbsnews.comCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland MonsterCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland Monster
The same CBS report shows how local memory can inflate the social scale of a rumour. Ivy Wells, then connected with Sykesville’s Main Street and ghost tours, said townspeople took the creature seriously and recalled restricted access after a sighting near South Branch Park. At the same time, she also said no official records of the Bigfoot-related investigations from 1973 to 1981 could be found, despite police involvement being remembered through newspapers and eyewitness accounts. That absence does not prove a cover-up; it more safely tells us that the public memory of the Sykesville Monster is stronger than the surviving official paper trail.[CBS News]cbsnews.comCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland MonsterCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland Monster
Lon Strickler’s 1981 account gave the legend a second life. He said he was fly-fishing on the Patapsco River on 9 May 1981 when a stray dog flushed a dark, matted, eight-foot creature from brush on the opposite bank. He described a musky smell, a clicking or ticking sound, and a figure that looked partly human and partly animal before it fled. Strickler later became a paranormal writer and broadcaster, which means his account is important to the legend’s afterlife but should be read as a personal claim, not independent proof.[CBS News]cbsnews.comCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland MonsterCBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland Monster
The local landscape helps explain why the story stuck. Sykesville sits near a mix of town, river, parkland and institutional history. The town’s own history page notes that the B&O railroad reached Sykesville in 1831 and that the Springfield estate was sold to the state in 1896 for a hospital for the mentally ill. Springfield Hospital Center’s official history says its first patients arrived in July 1896 and that by the late 1940s and early 1950s the hospital population exceeded 3,000. Those facts do not explain the monster, but they do explain why Sykesville had the kind of layered local geography in which rumours of prowlers, patients, woods, roads and strange figures could become tangled.[townofsykesville.gov]townofsykesville.govOpen source on townofsykesville.gov.
A cautious reading separates three things that are often blended together. First, there were local reports of a strange hairy figure. Second, there were investigations, newspaper stories and community reactions that made the story feel larger. Third, later paranormal media reframed the case as a Bigfoot mystery. The further a retelling moves from the 1973 newspaper flap, the more likely it is to add familiar American Bigfoot ingredients: great height, bad smell, heavy footprints, secretive authorities and a witness who cannot get straight answers.
Strange animals, pranks and fast folklore
The Dwayyo and Sykesville Monster show that small cryptid rumours do not need much evidence to become culturally durable. They need a repeatable pattern. A witness sees or hears something odd. A local paper or later storyteller gives it a name. Police, game officials or other authority figures are mentioned, even if the record is incomplete. A physical trace appears — a footprint, a noise, a licence, a damaged shed, a frightened animal — and then the story becomes available for teenagers, tour guides, paranormal shows and Halloween features.
The Dwayyo’s “dog licence” is the clearest sign of prank energy. It turned a frightening report into a joke that could still preserve the name. The Sykesville Monster’s 13-inch footprint sits at the other end of the scale: it sounds impressive until the sandal explanation enters the story. In both cases, the evidence is less useful as zoology than as folklore. It shows what people found persuasive, funny or frightening at the time.[The Banner]thebanner.comdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CMdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM
Ordinary wildlife can do a surprising amount of work in these legends. Maryland’s black bears are the state’s largest wild mammals and are present in the western counties, including Frederick, while DNR says coyotes now occur statewide after first being documented in 1972. A bear glimpsed upright, a large dog seen at dusk, a coyote heard at night, or an animal moving through brush beside a road can all become stranger in memory, especially when a community already has a name waiting for the next odd report.[Maryland Department of Natural Resources]dnr.maryland.govOpen source on maryland.gov.
There is also a media effect. The Dwayyo’s strongest life came through local newspaper attention and later folklore recovery. The Sykesville Monster moved from local press to paranormal retellings and television, including a 2014 Monsters and Mysteries in America episode previewed by CBS Baltimore. Once a story enters that circuit, it is no longer only a local rumour. It becomes a reusable cryptid file, ready to be summarised beside Bigfoot, Goatman or the Snallygaster.[The Banner]thebanner.comdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CMdwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM
This is why minor monsters deserve their own place in Maryland’s cryptid history. They show the middle stage between “someone saw something” and “everyone knows the legend”. Famous monsters often look inevitable in hindsight, as if they were always part of the state’s identity. The Dwayyo and Sykesville Monster are messier and more revealing. They show the joins: the uncertain witness, the amused reporter, the missing record, the plausible animal, the local place-name and the later storyteller smoothing it all into a creature.
How to read Maryland’s minor monsters fairly
The fairest way to read these stories is neither to sneer at them nor to believe every detail. Treat the Dwayyo as a Frederick County wolf-man rumour that probably grew from a 1965 newspaper event, local humour and older Snallygaster-adjacent folklore. Treat the Sykesville Monster as a Carroll County hairy-biped rumour with a real 1970s media footprint, a later 1981 witness claim and a strong afterlife in local memory. Both are valuable, but neither is confirmed as an unknown animal.
A useful test is to ask what kind of claim is being made. A named witness report is not the same as a verified specimen. A footprint cast is not the same as a diagnostic trackway. A police response to worried residents is not the same as official confirmation of a creature. A later television retelling is not the same as a contemporary record. These distinctions do not make the stories boring; they make them clearer.
The Dwayyo belongs with western Maryland’s mountain-beast traditions because it shares their wooded setting, German-settler folklore atmosphere and Snallygaster orbit. The Sykesville Monster belongs with Maryland’s roadside and river-valley rumours because it depends on wooded edges, local memory and a brief public flap. Together, they show how Maryland’s smaller monster stories work: not as proof of hidden species, but as fast folklore attached to real places where the woods are close enough for a strange noise to become a creature.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: news.maryland.gov
Title: s cryptids and the wildlife that may have inspired them
Link:https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
2.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/plants_wildlife/black-bear.aspx
3.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Title: Department of Natural Resources GAMBRILL STATE PARK
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/pages/western/gambrill.aspx
4.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Title: Department of Natural Resources PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/pages/central/patapsco.aspx
5.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/hunt_trap/blackbear.aspx
6.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/hunt_trap/coyote.aspx
7.
Source: news.maryland.gov
Title: coyotes in maryland
Link:https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2016/06/20/coyotes-in-maryland/
8.
Source: msa.maryland.gov
Title: msa afro 1973 01 0501
Link:https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/ecpdata/webroot/msaref14/msa_sc5458_000045_000338a/pdf/msa_afro_1973_01-0501.pdf
9.
Source: townofsykesville.gov
Link:https://www.townofsykesville.gov/2195/History
10.
Source: health.maryland.gov
Link:https://health.maryland.gov/springfield/Pages/history.aspx
11.
Source: mdhistory.msa.maryland.gov
Title: govthe baltimore afro-american
Link:https://mdhistory.msa.maryland.gov/msaref14/msa_sc5458_000045_000338a/pdf/msa_afro_1973_01-0502.pdf
12.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Title: bearhunt historymanagement.aspx
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/huntersguide/pages/bearhunt_historymanagement.aspx
13.
Source: dnr.maryland.gov
Title: Patapsco Area 04 River Road
Link:https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Documents/Patapsco/Patapsco-Area-04-River-Road.pdf
14.
Source: parkreservations.maryland.gov
Title: campground Details.do
Link:https://parkreservations.maryland.gov/camping/gambrill-state-park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=MD&parkId=380110
15.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Hiding Evidence of the Sykesville Monster | Monsters and Mysteries in America!
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulSU_VOJt2I
Source snippet
Dwayyo - American FolkLore...
16.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgVAppxELuc
Source snippet
An American Wolfman...
17.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Dwayyo: An American Wolfman
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4mS_7dKrh8
Source snippet
MONSTERS AND MYSTERIES | The Rake, Lechuza, Sykesville Monster | S2 | Episode 10 | Horror Series...
18.
Source: bygonemaryland.com
Title: Bygone Maryland The Dwayyo: ‘Don’t Mess with It’
Link:https://bygonemaryland.com/2016/10/20/the-dwayyo-dont-mess-with-it/
19.
Source: cbsnews.com
Title: CBS News Show To Feature Tale Of Maryland Monster
Link:https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/show-to-feature-tale-of-maryland-monster/
20.
Source: thebanner.com
Title: dwayyo snallygaster maryland lore GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM
Link:https://www.thebanner.com/community/local-news/dwayyo-snallygaster-maryland-lore-GIVUCCORVFGANEPE4TV6JAM3CM/
21.
Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snallygaster
22.
Source: cryptidz.fandom.com
Title: Cryptid Wiki Dewayo
Link:https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Dewayo
23.
Source: thishauntedplace.com
Title: Sykesville Monster
Link:https://thishauntedplace.com/sykesville-monster/
24.
Source: cryptidz.fandom.com
Title: Sykesville Monster
Link:https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Sykesville_Monster
25.
Source: monster.fandom.com
Link:https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Dwayyo
26.
Source: new-cryptozoology.fandom.com
Link:https://new-cryptozoology.fandom.com/wiki/Dwayyo
27.
Source: visitfrederick.org
Link:https://www.visitfrederick.org/listing/gambrill-state-park/261/
28.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Springfield Hospital Center
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Hospital_Center
29.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Gambrill State Park
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambrill_State_Park
30.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Patapsco Valley State Park
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patapsco_Valley_State_Park
31.
Source: folkbestiary.com
Link:https://folkbestiary.com/maryland/
32.
Source: odysseyparanormal.com
Link:https://odysseyparanormal.com/sykesville/
33.
Source: tripadvisor.com
Title: Gambrill State Park
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60903-d4323636-Reviews-Gambrill_State_Park-Frederick_Maryland.html
34.
Source: allstateparks.com
Title: Gambrill State Park
Link:https://www.allstateparks.com/maryland/gambrill-state-park
35.
Source: historicwarfield.com
Link:https://historicwarfield.com/history/
36.
Source: fishandhuntmaryland.com
Link:https://fishandhuntmaryland.com/species/bear
37.
Source: birdersguidemddc.org
Title: Gambrill State Park
Link:https://birdersguidemddc.org/site/gambrill-state-park/
Additional References
38.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Exploring Maryland’s Weird Creatures: Myths and Legends of the United States
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzPVk6r9rrg
Source snippet
Hiding Evidence of the Sykesville Monster | Monsters and Mysteries in America...
39.
Source: cityoffrederickmd.gov
Link:https://cityoffrederickmd.gov/CivicAlerts.asp?AID=3353&ARC=3853
40.
Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/p/DKA3rdoOGrA/
41.
Source: audioboom.com
Link:https://audioboom.com/posts/8405339-the-sykesville-monster-cryptids-aliens-and-other-thanksgiving-tales-w-lon-strickler
42.
Source: anchor.fm
Link:https://anchor.fm/s/8f626c88/podcast/rss
43.
Source: komoot.com
Link:https://www.komoot.com/highlight/6418658
44.
Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/p/DG2KAqLsv9S/another-day-another-letter-to-a-small-town-historical-society-about-a-body-that-/
45.
Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/p/DQYRwkLjZMQ/
46.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/bigfootevidence/posts/on-a-misty-saturday-morning-in-the-spring-of-1976-around-7-am-something-strange-/1451162190379256/
47.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1112445770101237/posts/1661896858489456/
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